kevin lim . social cyborg . cyberculturalist . edupunk . futurist

July 18, 2006

Video: Valve’s Portal Gun = Ultimate Sci-fi Tool

Some time ago I saw Gametrailer’s Top Ten Videogame Weapons of all time. The most interesting weapon also turned out to be an incredibly useful tool: Half-Life’s Gravity Gun. Today, a funny trailer reveals a new kind of weapon/tool developed by Valve for an upcoming game, aptly named Portal.

This is the demonstration of Portal from Valve’s presentation at the EA Summer Media Event. It was as much overshadowed by the announcement of Team Fortress 2 as it was unfairly overshadowed by it. Yes, this is very much inspired by Prey’s cool-ass portal system, but Human Head Studios certainly didn’t explore the mind-bending infinite dimensional paradoxes of portals like this.

I used to think Star Trek’s Tricorder was cool, until I saw this “Portal” gun. It’s definitely on my Amazon Wishlist.